New Civilization Culture

3 June 1995

It might be beneficial to look at a new civilization as an emerging culture. See, a culture is not something that is planned, controlled or organized. A culture is a continously changing movement. It is what people do, the experiences they have, and the values, ideas and dreams they have in common.

A culture has no clearly defined borders. There is no certainty on exactly who's in it and who isn't and it is not clear exactly when it starts or ends.

There is no need to fully comprehend or analyze a culture in order to partake in it. It lives even if nobody quite understands what it is or where it came from. It might contain many elements in constant motion, but there is no need to be confused about them. A culture is appreciated by experiencing it, not by explaining it.

A culture emerges when the time is right. It can not be forced upon anybody by a central command. If and when it emerges, it takes on a life of its own, existing beyond anybody who might participate in it.

There aren't particulary right or wrong ways of carrying forward a culture. Rather the culture is the sum of everything that its participants do.

A civilization can appear unfathomably complex if we try to understand everything that goes on in it, or if we try to predict or control how exactly it will develop, or if we try to agree on these things. However, if we regard a new civilization as a culture, we don't have to. We might simply start participating in it, expressing it and living it.

It might well be more fruitful to tell the stories of what we do, what we experience, and what we dream in the emerging new civilization, than it might be to debate what the correct course of action is.